Octoprint vs Astroprint Control your 3D Printer Remotely

Octoprint vs Astroprint what are the differences, how to do choose and what’s the best option for you. These article will discuss the two web interfaces that allow you to remotely control your 3d printer from anywhere!

Octoprint is an open source project started by Gina Häußge a.k.a foosel over 5 years ago. Astroprint is a company that offers open source and product kits users can buy pre-configured. Okay great but what are they and what are their differences.

Both Octoprint vs Astroprint in short give users the ability to control their 3D Printers from a web interface that can be accessed inside or outside of your home network. This is typically done with a piece of hardware called a Single Board Computer (SBC) or what you’ll most commonly hear used, a Rapberry Pi. We’re not going to go into hardware here but both sites offer very good and detailed information on what you need.

Octoprint vs Astroprint

Comparative Differences

OctoPrint

Somewhat easy installation

Fully customizable and community run

Great for tech savy or program savy users

Barebone GUI (Interface)

Dynamic info tabbed in sections

Support by community

Buy your own gear

SBC vesrion only

Free OS

AstroPrint

Extremly easy installation

Limited adjustabilty

Excellent choice for beginners

Full suite GUI with style

Dynamic info basic all-in-one screen

Support by staff

Buy pre-installed kits or your own gear

SBC, Desktop, cloud and Mobile App versions

Free OS

What do they offer?

Octoprint vs Astroprint each basically offer the same thing just in a different way. Here is a small list of some of the things these web interfaces offer;

File Uploader and Manager

Integrated Slicing Software

3D Printer Motion and Tempurature Control

Real-Time Data

Web or IP Camera View

Terminal Command Window

Plug-ins and Add-ons

Octoprint

Octoprint is great for users with some programming or development experience. If you have configured marlin firmware for your 3d printer or have installed a linux distro on your computer then this is probably the right choice for you. Octoprint is found on github and can easily be forked or modified to make things they way you like it. However, you don’t need to be a full stack developer to use Octoprint either. It’s still really easy to get it installed and running if you are patient enough to read the guide and follow instructions.

Astroprint

If you have never configured your 3d printers firmware, installed an operating system on your computer or just don’t want to mess with any programming, then astroprint is probably the best choice for you. Astroprint offer a full suite of control for your 3d printer and it’s a professional interface with lots of user friendly features. There are even integrated model searches from your favorite stl websites like thingiverse.

Which will you choose?

So now that you have the facts which one is best for you? There’s no right or wrong answer here. Both options are great and work really well. If you have questions or comments please leave them below and if you like this article please give it a share on your favorite social media page.

Now I should mention that there are other solutions out there like Repetier-Server but we are pro marlin around these parts so…

For more information on the two options you can find a ton of information and walkthroughs by doing a quick web search.